Future Leaders Innovation Challenge

Resilience & Advocacy

Designing Real‑World Solutions for Early Cancer Detection in Underserved Communities

The Future Leaders Innovation Challenge invites students, early‑career professionals, and multidisciplinary teams to tackle a global health problem under real‑world constraints. Your mission is to design affordable, accessible, and culturally adaptable tools or methods that enable earlier detection of cancer, particularly in low‑resource or underserved settings.

The Challenge Question

How might we design practical, low‑cost, and culturally relevant tools or methods that improve early cancer detection for underserved communities?

Your solution should be grounded in evidence, informed by data, and tailored to a specific population.

What You’ll Receive: Pre‑Cleaned Datasets

To support your innovation, you will be provided with four curated datasets capturing the clinical, economic, social, and behavioural barriers that shape cancer outcomes.

1. Deprivation, Epidemiological & Demographic Data

Use this dataset to understand population characteristics and identify communities experiencing poorer outcomes. Includes:

Index of Multiple Deprivation: Top 20% most deprived areas in the East of England
Cancer incidence & mortality rates by type, region, age, gender, socioeconomic status
Stage at diagnosis: % diagnosed at Stage I/II vs Stage III/IV

2. Healthcare Infrastructure & Resource Data

This dataset helps you map the availability and distribution of health services. Includes:

Facility mapping: Primary care clinics, diagnostic labs, oncology centres
Equipment availability: Access to standard screening tools
Wait time performance: NHS diagnostic bottlenecks by geography

3. Cultural & Behavioural Data

Understand how people engage with healthcare systems. Includes:

Screening uptake rates by ethnicity and socioeconomic background
Health‑seeking behaviour: Preventative vs reactive care patterns

4. Economic & Cost Data

Use this to build a cost‑effective solution. Includes:

Current diagnostic costs: Out‑of‑pocket expenses, standard procedure costs
Economic impact of late diagnosis: Cost differences between early‑ and late‑stage treatment

Your Innovation Task

This dataset helps you map the availability and distribution of health services.

1. Define Your Focus

Choose one community and one region experiencing poorer‑than‑average access or outcomes. Examples:

People with learning disabilities
Coastal or rural communities
Minority ethnic groups
Low‑income urban populations

Tip: Avoid trying to “solve cancer for everyone.” Precision beats breadth.

2. Build Your Evidence Base

Use the datasets to answer questions such as:

What are the cancer wait times in your chosen region?
What barriers exist for outpatient appointments or screening?
What cultural or behavioural factors influence health‑seeking?
What economic pressures shape decision‑making?

Your solution must be data‑driven.

3. Develop a Logical Flow for Your Solution

Break your idea into three parts:

A. Resources
What resources or settings will you use? Examples:

Barbershops for prostate cancer awareness
Libraries for screening pop‑ups
Community centres for health literacy workshops

B. Output
What immediate results do you expect? Examples:

Increased cervical smear attendance
Higher screening uptake among men
More people accessing early diagnostic pathways

C. Impact
What long‑term change will your solution drive? Examples:

10% reduction in late‑stage lung cancer diagnoses
Improved screening equity across ethnic groups
Reduced diagnostic wait times in deprived areas

4. Stress‑Test Your Solution

Ensure your idea is:

GDPR‑compliant
Culturally sensitive
Non‑discriminatory
Feasible for NHS staff (does not add unnecessary workload)
Easy for the public to use

5. Prepare Your Pitch

Your final pitch should follow this structure:

The Hook: Introduce a data‑based persona.
Example: “Meet Peter. Based on his postcode, he is more likely to die from cancer due to low literacy levels and economic deprivation.”
The Innovation: Showcase your solution clearly and visually.
Feasibility: Explain how your idea integrates into existing NHS pathways.
Scalability: Demonstrate how it can expand within your chosen region or community.
The Impact: Return to your persona and show how their life changes because of your solution.

Judging Criteria

The submitted proposed solutions for the innovation challenge will be judged on the following criteria:

Innovation & scientific merit
Feasibility in the UK and contexts.
Cost‑effectiveness & scalability.
Impact on early detection and health equity
Clarity of prototype and pitch

The winning team will be awarded prizes during the last day of the conference.

To participate in the Future Leaders Innovation Challenge, please ensure you have registered and paid for the conference. For more information, please send us an email at: david@afiuk.org

Good luck, innovators. Remember: The most “high-tech” solution isn’t always the winner—the most “used” solution is.